Over dinner the boy announced
There would be magic
In the living room at noon
His aunt and uncle appeared promptly
The first conjuring
Having come over after church
Where they’d been fooled
By the old transubstantiation trick
For the thousandth time
And had never once doubted it
And now here was their strange nephew
In his father’s green corduroy coat
Ample room in the sleeves
His uncle noted laughingly
Standing skeptically
While his aunt sat stiffly on the couch
Preparing herself for amazement
He asked for a quarter from his uncle
And when that had been disappeared
Asked for the handkerchief his aunt
Held absently in her hand
And when that had been disappeared
Asked for his watch
Then for her ring
Everything they had on
Them was disappearing
It’s all in those sleeves
His uncle claimed
So the boy took the coat off
Gave it a shake
Four feathers fell out
The soft downy feathers that fill a pillow
They were getting anxious
He had told them he could make
Things disappear
But had said nothing about making them
Come back
He put the coat on again
As if to comfort them
Then gave her back her ring
And he his watch
She her handkerchief
He his quarter
It was something with that coat
His uncle said earnestly
Now that they were reunited
With these things by which
They knew themselves
Like rocks off which
Soundings strike and echo
They were in the mood to feign wonderment
His mother was calling for them
To come have dessert
Leaving the strange boy
They would never understand
Gathering the four feathers
That were the secret
“With these things by which
They knew themselves”🙌🏼